Candle and Darkness
by VampirePaladin
Summary: Natalia lives with her older brother and sister. They are a poor family but the two elder siblings work hard to put Natalia in a good school. One day she heads into an abandoned mansion...
1. Everyday Life

"And make sure you come home once school is over, alright?" Katyusha said as she handed her younger sister a tin lunch pail.

"Yeah, I know," Natalia mumbled.

"Good, both of us would be sad if something happened to our baby sister while we were working."

Katyusha was Natalia's older sister. She would clean the homes of rich people. Natalia's older brother Ivan was already at the factory. He had gone to work long before the sun rose. Both of them worked very hard to keep this shack the three of them called home. They could have lived some place nicer if they would let Natalia go to work too. Neither of them would allow it. The two scrimped and saved to send her to school every day.

Natalia hated school. All the other girls came from families better off than hers. The daughters of merchants, judges and lower ranking government officials went to Mary's School for Girls. The other girls would have their hair curled and wore brightly colored dresses. Natalia wore the same two or three dresses that her older sister constantly washed and repaired. It would not have been so bad if the skirts were all too short on Natalia. She would spend the day tugging on her skirts, trying to make them longer.

"Be a good girl," Katyusha said as she hugged her little sister.

Natalia mumbled something that sound vaguely like "goodbye" before she turned and began to walk away. She held the tin lunch pail in her left hand. She let her right hand hang limply by her side. It was only about a mile to school.

On her way there she would walk through an older part of town that was filled with mansions. Each one had an imposing fence or wall around them with a large gate. Her favorite was one that she thought was abandoned. The mansion sat far back with trees in between it and the gate. Natalia would imagine them becoming rich and moving there. Ivan would run the factory and those stuck up rich women would clean for Katyusha. Natalia wouldn't even have to go to school anymore. The teachers would come to her.

Natalia stopped to look at her favorite mansion. She was admiring it when she thought she saw movement. It must have been her imagination. No one lived here. But, Natalia still could have sworn she saw someone look out the window.

She looked back and forth up and down the street. There was no one else there except for her. She did not know how long until someone would appear on foot or coming down the street. Natalia untied her apron, put it through the handle of her lunch pail and retied it. With both of her hands free she began to climb the gate.

About halfway up she reached up, grabbed a piece of metal, pulled and found herself stuck. With a small grunt she forced her way up. The caught piece of fabric ripped leaving a large rip in her skirt. Natalia blocked out the knowledge of her impeding scolding when she got home. She continued climbing until she was at the top. Careful of the spikes, she crossed over to the other side. She only climbed down a little bit and then let herself drop the rest of the way.

Natalia dusted herself off and inspected the damage to her skirt. The rip was at least six inches. There was no way she was going to be able to hide this from her sister. She untied her lunch pail and followed the road leading back to the mansion.

Maybe she had seen a thief? If she had she could go get a constable. There might even be a reward for it. Or it could have been a ghost, jealous of its inability to leave the house while she could come and go. Even if it had just been a draft and there was really no one here it would not be too bad. There was always the chance she could find something valuable to take to a pawn shop.

The path led her to a pair of old doors. Both were locked and too sturdy for her to have a prayer of breaking through. This did not deter her. She began to walk around the building, looking up and down. Finally, she found a low set window. It must lead to a cellar. Natalia tested it. It was stuck, but she was able to force it open.

She crawled through the window and into the darkness. She fell the short distance to the stone floor. The landing was painful only because she landed on her lunch pail. Natalia considered it for a moment, internally debating whether or not to get rid of it. When she stood and began searching for a door she still carried it.

Natalia blindly searched with the fingers of her free hand. She found a wall and followed it until she touched the handle of an old door. When she pulled it open she could smell mildew. Natalia stepped through the doorway. This room was bigger. The darkness was different than before and gave off the impression of depth. It took a while, and a few stumbles, to find a set of stairs going up.

She opened the door at the top of the steps and found herself in a hallway. Even run down it was the most beautiful building interior she had ever seen. The furniture that was falling apart and the broken glass on the floor gave a certain charm that only a girl like her could appreciate. Heavy, discolored curtains blocked the windows. The only light came from an Oriental oil lamp.

The lamp was lit.

A blur of pink movement spun Natalia around. The last thing she remembered was a pain in her throat before the darkness of unconsciousness claimed her.


	2. Heading Home

Natalia woke up feeling sore, tired and in pain. She opened her eyes to a dark room. Her muscles tensed at the unfamiliarity. She slightly relaxed when she vaguely recognized the shape of the furniture. She pulled herself to her feet using a heavy chair to help support her weight. She staggered from there to the wall. After blindly searching she found one of the heavy curtains and threw it open. The sudden red light of the setting sun hurt her eyes and she had to shield them until they adjusted.

Had she fallen asleep here? It was hard to believe she would have done something so dumb. She rubbed her neck without thinking about it. At least this meant that she would not have to go to school today. She had already slept through it. Natalia yawned. After sleeping all day she should not be as exhausted as she currently felt.

She turned and slowly walked down the hallway, completely ignoring her lunch pail. She passed the door leading back down stairs. Right now she did not think she could navigate down and up through the window. Natalia kept going to the doors at the far end. She hoped it was the right general direction of the main entrance. The door was not locked, but it was stuck. It took all of her strength to get it open. She staggered into a large room that must have been used for receiving visitors to this manor. Right now Natalia was not in any state to appreciate its dilapidated grandeur. Natalia went for the front door. It was slightly ajar. It took surprisingly little work to get them open a little more and slide through them.

From the shadows a lone person watched Natalia leave.

Natalia had found the gate unlocked. She only thought about it enough to be grateful that she would not need to climb over it again to get out. She turned down the street and headed toward home.

There was light coming from the window of the house. She could smell her sister's simple, but delicious cooking. Natalia knocked on the door. Katyusha threw open the door.

"Natalia, what happened to you? Your dress! Where is your lunch pail?" She pulled her younger sister inside the house and began looking her over.

Natalia mumbled something about doing stuff with other girls from school. She was too tired to put much work into her lies.

"Did you hear that, Ivan? Little Natasha made friends and was spending time with them!" Katyusha pulled Natalia into a big hug, almost suffocating her against the large breasts.

Ivan got up from the wooden chair he had been sitting in at the kitchen table. He had a tired smile. He placed his hand on his little sister's head as he said "I am happy for you. You should have many friends."

Natalia gave that happy smile she only ever gave her big brother when he paid attention to her. He was always at the factory. When their parents had died Natalia had been just a baby. Katyusha had to start finding work almost immediately. So while Katyusha would have been away all day, Ivan would be taking care of the younger child. This lasted until Natalia was old enough to be left alone. Then he had started working in the factory. Secretly, Natalia wished they would forget about sending her to that dumb school.

"Thank you, big brother," she said softly, even demurely. Then Natalia yawned.

"Are you alright?" Katyusha asked.

"You should get some rest. Being overtired is not good."

"Just leave your dress out and I will repair it tonight."

Natalia just nodded at both of them, she was so tired that she did not even feel hungry. She walked to the room that the three of them shared. It was all she could manage to change out of her clothing and into the nightdress that her sister had made for her. The clothing she had been wearing was unceremoniously dropped onto a crudely built chest. She rubbed her neck as she lay down in the bed. It was really starting to bother her.

Sleep began to close in around her. They were haunted by pink shadows and a pain in her neck.


	3. Detouring from the Path

Natalia was feeling better when she woke up in the morning. Her ripped dress was not where she had left it. Her sister must have repaired it and put it away. Natalia slid out of bed. She went to the chest that her clothing was stored in, the same one that she had left her dress on the night before. Inside was another well-worn and well-patched dress. The skirt was too short on her, just like all her other clothing. She would not be getting it replaced with properly fitting clothing until it was falling apart. Even then it would not be thrown out. Her sister would find some use for it. Maybe she would use the scraps for stuffing a pillow or incorporate them into a patchwork quilt. Her brother might tear them up and use them as rags for cleaning. They wasted nothing, they couldn't afford not to.

Her sister had porridge waiting for her, sweetened with honey. Natalia devoured all of it, after all she had not eaten since breakfast the previous day.

"It looks like you have your appetite back, Natalia," Katyusha said.

Natalia nodded.

"Here is your lunch for today." Katyusha set down a bundle of cloth, the corners tied together. Inside of it was the food. "Since you didn't bring your pail home I don't have anything else to put it in."

"This is fine," Natalia said. She took the bundle and left for school.

She walked her usual route. When she came to the mansion she had entered the previous day she stopped. Natalia turned to look at it, grasping a bar of the gate in her hand. She could feel something tugging, beckoning her to return to it. Her legs were shaking slightly. Part of her wanted to throw open the gate and run into the mansion. The rest of her wanted to get out of here as fast as possible. She pushed herself away from the gate, breathing heavily.

She turned away from the mansion, to see two of her classmates heading out of one of the mansions toward the street. Before she could think, Natalia was through the gate, pulling it shut behind her. It locked with a loud clunk. She ducked behind an old tree, holding her lunch close to her chest. It was only then that she realized that she was locked in.

Natalia could climb back over, but she really doubted she could do so without ripping her clothing again. Her sister would not be happy to have to repair two dresses in two days, especially since Natalia only owned three.

The gate was unlocked when Natalia came in and sense it was locked yesterday that meant that in between the two events someone had come to unlock it. It would not make much sense for someone to leave a door unlocked after leaving, so maybe the person who unlocked it was still in the house.

Natalia took a moment to make sure her classmates would not see her. Then she marched straight back into the depths of the grounds and right up to the door of the mansion. She put one hand on the handle, pressing down the lever with her thumb. Natalia pulled. The door swung open.

She stepped in. There was no sign of fear or trepidation.

"Hello, is anyone here? Open the gate," Natalia yelled out.

"Aren't you a demanding one," a female voice said.

Natalia spun on her heel to face the voice.

Standing in a shadowed doorway was a young Asian woman. She had a pink flower in her long, dark hair and wore a pink dress. Her features were exotic to Natalia.

"Who are you?" Natalia said.

"My name is Xue. I just bought this mansion." She spoke with a cheerful lilt, like she had some private joke that she was not sharing with the world.

"Open the gate and let me out." Describing what Natalia as anything but an order would have been a lie.

Xue brought one arm up, her oversized sleeve draped over her hand, and covered her mouth, as if to hide a smile. "Would you like to stay awhile and talk? I would love to know all about you. What is your name?"

"Natalia," she said automatically.

"What a pretty name. Come here, Natalia. I would love to get to know you better."

Natalia found herself staring into Xue's brown eyes. She could not look away. It was not until she was halfway across the room that she realized she was walking toward Xue. She could not look away from her eyes. Then she was in front of her.

Natalia only barely felt the fangs sink into her neck.


End file.
